John Marc Schaelling called The Oregonian's breaking news line shortly after we published a story about Portland police plans to shift patrols into some of the city's hot spot neighborhoods.

Schaelling had his own hot spot to report: a house on his North Portland block that had become a magnet for drug users and a constant headache for the people who live nearby. Neighbors were exposed to violent fights in the street, trespassing at all hours and other scary encounters with a constant stream of people staying at the house, he said.

View full sizeThis is the home on North Bristol Avenue in North Portland that has neighbors up in arms.Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian

We checked it out and found residents on North Bristol Avenue at their wit's end, and police officers and city attorneys flummoxed by the elderly homeowner's inability to cope with the chaos.

It's a fraught situation that repeats itself around Portland and cities across the metro area. These aren't the occasional loud party complaints. These homes rise to the level of chronic nuisances that can destroy a neighborhood's livability. Portland and other cities have adopted laws to deal with them.

On Friday,we take an in-depth look at the block on North Bristol and how Portland handles chronic nuisances like this one.

On Monday, you can go to oregonlive.com/portland and leave questions in an Ask Me Anything post you'll find on the page. Reporter Maxine Bernstein will start answering the questions Monday afternoon. But please don't give the addresses or names of your neighbors in the post. Instead, email any specific information to mbernstein@oregonian.com.

In the meantime, here's advice from Portland's Office of Neighborhood Involvement, Portland police and the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office about what to do if you think you have a home on your block that has become a chronic nuisance:

-- Call 911 or the police non-emergency number, 503-823-3333, depending on the urgency, to report crimes in progress or illegal activity.

-- Each police precinct has a Neighborhood Response Team of officers who work on chronic problem locations. For Central Precinct, call 503-823-0097; East Precinct, 503-823-4800, and North Precinct 503-823-5792.

-- Contact neighbors and set up a meeting to discuss the problem and make a plan. A city crime prevention coordinator can help. Find out who the coordinator is in your neighborhood at this website or call Office of Neighborhood Involvement at 503-823-4519.

-- Document and report suspicious activity: Report every significant incident to the police, request that a report be written. Keep a log of suspected crimes observed, describing people, vehicles, their activities.

-- Form a neighborhood watch or foot patrol.

-- Set up Google groups for residents to share information.

-- If a neighbor has a relationship with the owner of the problem property, maybe the neighbor can serve as a liaison with the homeowner.

-- Neighbors worried about possible code violations -- which can include abandoned vehicles in front of a house, piles of garbage, overgrown grass and shrubbery or squatters occupying a vacant property -- should contact the Bureau of Development Services at 503-823-2633 or visit the agency's website for a full list of potential violations.